


Exclusive, from the outside

by orphan_account



Category: Inazuma Eleven, Inazuma Eleven GO
Genre: Developing Friendships, M/M, Romantic Friendship, remember the ie vs danball senki movie?, taiyou is the one pinning here mostly, well that's where this is coming from
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-25 15:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20726375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: He followed the older boy with his sight as he made his way towards the exit, where Hakuryuu was waiting for him.Taiyou envied their connivance, their complicity when excluding everyone else.He wanted to be their friend too.





	1. Cold

Taiyou tried to put all his concentration into the game playing on TV. It was an old Inazuma Japan match against Italy’s Orpheus, only one of the bunch that Kido suggested they should watch before their upcoming match.

An easy task, really. Under normal circumstances.

Right now, in place of enjoying the match and taking the necessary notes, Taiyou had to fight his mind to keep it away from eavesdropping Yukimura’s conversation with Hakuryuu some tables behind him. Why they choose to speak there in place of one of their rooms, he didn’t dare ask.

“… They are cheering for me back in Hokkaido. So I want to at least offer a good fight, even if we don’t win.” young Kido stole the ball from a blond kid of the Orpheus team.

“So your admiration for your coach goes that high that you don’t even consider yourself good enough to win against him?” the Italian defense managed to stop Japan forwards from getting closer to the goal.

“Do you consider yourself good enough to win against Gōenji-san?” Taiyou heard no bitterness in that question, but his attention finally got fully borrowed by it. What would his answer be, he was deeply curious about that too.

“No.” Taiyou would be lying if he said that it didn’t hurt, hearing his teammate say that with such confidence, as if he was merely stating that the sky is blue or two plus two make four “Not alone.”

Amemiya felt his back tremble and something going up in his throat, because, of course the guy would say that. How could he ever think otherwise? He had to suppress his laughter.

But his strange moment of inner happiness got interrupted because something else surprised him. He turned his head to look back and find that, yes, he wasn’t mistaken. For the very first time, he saw -and heard- Yukimura laugh. Hakuryuu was apparently proud of this achievement and looked at the dark-haired boy with fondness.

Why? Taiyou guessed it made sense. Yukimura rarely smiled, so, making him laugh… One would think that’d be impossible. Taiyou himself would feel a little proud too.

“You’re right, I almost forgot...” Yukimura recomposed himself, a smile adorning his lips “We are all together in the field, I’ll drive the ball so you and Tsurugi-kun can make some great goals.” Taiyou thought that was right, Hakuryuu and Tsurugi would make an amazing striker duet. They’d probably steal all the attention if the chance was given. But Hakuryuu seemed to think differently.

“Well, that doesn’t sound bad. But aren’t you forgetting about someone?” Hakuryuu barely tilted his head to look in Taiyou’s direction. Yukimura did the same.

Amemiya felt color rise to his face, they found him staring and Hakuryuu probably knew all along. He wondered what he should do.

“Oh, right,” Yukimura kept a gentle smile, surely trying to act cool as always “Taiyou-kun will be going face to face against Endou-san too. I’ll make sure to do my best covering your back so you don’t need to worry about any other sector of the field.”

That didn’t help at all in making Taiyou feel less ashamed, but it was nice to hear his teammate say that. More so, considering that was their third conversation so far, even when they shared a room on Teikoku’s dorm. The first time was when they greeted each other three days ago, the second, that very night when Yukimura was looking for his assigned room and Taiyou found him struggling with bringing his luggage upstairs.

Their training schedules, for unknown reasons, didn’t match at all. Every time Taiyou went back to sleep around nine, Yukimura was already knocked out on his bed; and when he woke up, Yukimura’s bed was already empty and tidied, the owner nowhere to be seen.

“Thank you! I’ll do my best for scoring too!” nerves made his voice come out a little higher than he wanted it to. But the other two didn’t seem to mind, so it was fine.

Yukimura returned his attention to Hakuryuu.

“Tomorrow I will definitely get through Kariya and pass you the ball.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear. Although it’d be bad too if our defense cannot keep the ball safe.”

“I don’t plan on letting it go so far back.”

Okay, okay. Taiyou sighed, knowing that he wasn’t anyhow part of that conversation, and returned his attention back to the old video. When he first heard he’d be joining the Shinsei Inazuma team, he was happy with the thought of having Tenma as a colleague on the field once again, that was at first; with the day of the match drawing closer, he received the request of his presence on Teikoku academy, place in which his team would be training together, he began to be expectant. Who would join the team aside from the Raimon players? Would they get along well? How good would they be? By no means was he disappointed to find out who the others were. But it was a bit of a letdown to see how good they got along with each other, and no one else; they were both more on the serious and loner side, and probably had more confidence in each other because they were on the same team together before.

Taiyou watched three more matches, successfully giving them all of his attention. But in the middle of the match against Korea, a hand appeared to rest on his shoulder, startling him.

“Hey.” Yukimura was there behind him “I’m going back to the room, wanted to say goodnight.”

“Ah, yes, sleep well. I’ll be going in a few minutes.”

It wasn’t that bad. Maybe if Taiyou tried to wake up a bit sooner, he could actually try and get a conversation going on with Yukimura, or, if he dared to go up to him during lunch, and no one intercepted him in the middle of the road and called him over to a different table.

He followed the older boy with his sight as he made his way towards the exit, where Hakuryuu was waiting for him. Taiyou envied their connivance, their complicity when excluding everyone else.

He wanted to be their friend too.

He wanted to be able of making Yukimura smile and be comfortable around him.

He rushed to take out the DVD and turn off the screen, but when he got back to his room, Yukimura was already asleep. That faint snoring he’d been paying attention to the past nights was enough proof.


	2. Warm

Hakuryuu rested his back against a tree, watching his teammates pass the ball from one side to the other. He wasn’t particularly in the mood of playing football with everything that was going on. Considering where they were at the moment and that maybe none of them would step into a stadium field ever again, or even sleep in a bed.

But, he found some peace in watching them.

It was nice to see Taiyou goofing around Yukimura every now and then, trying to make him smile as if they were back in Teikoku. Back to those training days when Taiyou trailed after them for a long time before Hakuryuu decided it wouldn’t harm the kid to be around them, and that he could, in fact, get along with them even if they weren’t the friendliest duo of the team; so he invited him to eat with them one afternoon.

Yukimura kicked the ball up in the air with a bit too much force, they waited, but it never came down, so it probably got stuck in some tree. Taiyou lost no time in offering to go look for it and, although reluctant, Yukimura agreed.

Hakuryuu then decided to move towards his friend.

“Hey, nice one.”

He was joking and the amusement in Yukimura’s stare told him that the other understood. Regardless, the northerner crossed his arms and frowned at him.

“If you are here just to gab...” Hakuryuu chuckled before he could stop himself.

“Ebullient as always, I see.” a smile crossed Yukimura’s face, so Hakuryuu relaxed “Anyway, are you okay? This place really seems safe.” his companion nodded.

“So it seems. But I still have some trouble believing those guy’s story.”

“About coming from a parallel world?”

“About being on the good side. At least, all of them. Don’t tell me you haven’t seen how some of them keep muttering at our backs.” Hakuryuu couldn’t tell him wrong about that.

“I’m sure it’s just that they’re wary about us. Just like we are about them.” Yukimura adverted his gaze, but finally nodded. Being more confident, Hakuryuu took a couple steps forward to stand right in front of Yukimura, and raised a hand to rest on the other’s shoulder “Now, for real, are you okay?”

This time, the shorter sighed and raised his blue -those beautiful ice-cold blue- eyes to look straight up at him.

“I just want to wake up tomorrow and think this was all a strange nightmare.”

“Yeah, I-”

“It’d be awesome if it were that easy.” Taiyou’s voice at his back surprised him, and he stepped back.

Not so much for the scare, but because he almost got caught doing something that the ginger might’ve found inappropriate. Hakuryuu was contempt with letting him goof around Yukimura, yes, but he also wanted to have the older to himself every once in a while.

“I thought about that too.” Taiyou continued “And, also, it’d be cool to know that you dream about me.” he beamed, changing the mood drastically. Hakuryuu didn’t know how to react against that way too obvious flirting, and when he turned to Yukimura, the older was having it four times worse.

His face was completely flushed in pink and his fair skin didn’t help to cover it.

For things like those, Hakuryuu kept thinking about kissing him. For he wanted to be the cause of the color rising to his face, he wanted to be the cause, although he didn’t mind Taiyou being able to do it too. He was sure anyway that the color was brighter and redder whenever he himself was the source of it.

Hakuryuu coughed.

“We should get going back to the camp, don’t you think?” he asked Yukimura.

The northerner looked at him worriedly, before drifting his gaze to Amemiya.

“Taikou-kun, do you want to go back already?”

“Yeah, sure! If we go now we’ll get back in time to help with dinner and get a second batch.”

Taiyou began to walk first, and the other two followed at a distance.

For Hakuryuu, it was obvious that Yukimura was in conflict. It took the guy a month -after all the Resistance Japan deal- to accept Hakuryuu’s feeling towards him, and even with that, they weren’t officially a couple, since they hadn’t found an appropriate moment to date yet, nor even had a proper kiss or told anyone about it.

“You know, it’s fine.” he spoke in a low voice so the ginger couldn’t hear him “If he likes you, that’s fine. I don’t particularly mind, so you can do whatever you want about that. But please, don’t ignore his feelings, that’d hurt way more.” he was there already.

If his words lifted a weight from his teammate’s shoulders or made it heavier, he couldn’t know. But after some seconds, his eyes showed a new resolution.

“We can speak about this calmly tomorrow. The three of us.”

That was fine, since the next day they would probably still be in that unknown place surrounded by those unknown people, with nothing important to do apart from, maybe, going into the deep forest to collect food.

The trick is, the next morning they were awakened by those strangers, who were mad at them for no reason. And after a strong discussion, Yukimura disappeared.

Literally, right in front of their eyes, he vanished into thin air.

Maybe he woke up back into their world, waiting for them, safe and sound; Hakuryuu tried to believe that, regardless of how little sense it made.

But of course, it could never be that easy.


	3. Hot

Yukimura knew how it was to be popular. At least, his school teammates -and classmates- always hassled him about it.

Having good grades, exceptional football skills, four or five extra chocolate boxes during the Lover’s Day, having few friends who were as cool as him. It was fun to think about those things that for him seemed to be normal, and for his teammates seemed to be a bother even when it brought more attention to their club. Regardless of all that, maybe he was a bit too cool, a bit too cold.

He preferred resolute people, so love letters and alike shy ways of confession always were a letdown for him.

Because of this, Hakuryuu appeared, he felt shattered. Both, by his presence and his skills. Sincere, quiet, good player, handsome features and fair musculature. And decided to confess to him directly, unwavering, face to face.

Until then, Yukimura hadn’t considered the possibility of dating another boy.

It took him a while to cope with the idea, but he didn’t regret his final decision.

Not even now.

“Excuse me.” he approached a couple of girls who were chatting on the hallway “Is this the way to the football field?” he asked gently, or at least tried to. He always sounded a bit colder than intended.

When he finally got to the field, he wasn’t impressed to find them in the middle of a discussion. He couldn’t point out a specific reason, but Hakuryuu was everything except quiet when Taiyou was around. Maybe he simply felt more freedom to let his quick-tempered side out when he was beside someone similar, and Taiyou, with his hotheaded nature -regarding football- was the perfect candidate.

He decided to take a seat and wait for them to finish and maybe -if he was lucky- notice him.

“This! This is why Kazemaru-san had it so easy to steal the ball from you! How many times do I have to repeat myself?!”

There was Taiyou, rising his voice tone due to exasperation. Yukimura guessed he was speaking about that awfully open shot Hakuryuu tried to score near the end of their last match. Even he felt like screaming back then.

“Maybe if you run faster, we wouldn’t need to be worried about that. Or even better, have some faith in the middle-fielders and don’t go so back down when you’re supposed to be on attack position.”

And there Hakuryuu, looking to reason while deepening his already deep voice. Yukimura felt a smile forming on his lips when he saw the supremely offended look of the ginger.

“Are you seriously telling me _that_ when I was the one who passed you the ball?”

“Passing me the ball doesn’t save you from being in the wrong position.”

_Being in the wrong position. _Yukimura bit his lower lip, he hadn’t yet commented nor received comments about his own performance during the game, and if he had to guess, he wouldn’t be getting any for a while. On the end, he was sent out into the field because they had no replacements. Being sent to a void dimension wasn’t something nice to the body, even less if you were there alone, not knowing how nor when you could ever be coming back to your homeland.

It wasn’t only the fact that he didn’t feel fully comfortable standing as a middle-fielder. He simply wasn’t even in the position of standing there on the field with everyone else. Regardless of Fubuki’s reassurance, of Hakuryuu and Taiyou’s comforting words and actions, even if they delayed the game to the next day because the stadium was empty when they came back; he still wasn’t sure.

But a week had passed already, and now he didn’t feel so scared.

Today was an important day.

“Yukimura-kun!” Taiyou was already running in his direction when he raised his head “How long have you been here? Are you bored? Do you want some candies? I have some in my bag?”

“Why are you asking me that?”

“He’s thinking out loud.” Hakuryuu followed suit and offered him one of his killer smiles, Taiyou sighed.

“Right. Sorry.” he seemed to be trying to remember if he did have those candies or not, or so Yukimura thought “I think I ate them already, would you accept a kiss instead?”

The abrupt suggestions of romantic actions from Taiyou were more of a common thing nowadays, but it never failed to let the others dumbfounded. Yukimura still had trouble believing how flirty the ginger turned out to be.

He breathed deeply.

“If you two are over with this practice, I’ll go wait outside while you change.” Taiyou smiled up to him and nodded, while Hakuryuu looked at him with awareness, feeling preeminent to know how hard it was for him to cover his embarrassment in those situations.

Why he wanted Taiyou to be part of what he and Hakuryuu shared? He wasn’t sure.

Why Hakuryuu gave him the choice of still being with him even when he admitted feeling attracted to Taiyou? He still had to build up the guts to ask, since the white-haired boy didn’t seem romantically interested in the ginger at all.

He spent some minutes waiting at the entrance of the building looking at the cars passing by, he heard no sound at his back before a hand wrapped itself around his own. He turned to look who did that and was greeted by a peck on the cheek. An orange sun smiled brightly at him.

“I’m glad that you decided to invite me too.”

“I always do, but you don’t have that much free time.”

“Still.” Taiyou insisted, and Hakuryuu finally appeared behind him.

“We can go now.” the taller boy stepped towards them and took Yukimura’s free hand, he inclined to whisper something to his ear “He’s been anxious all day, I believe it’s his first date even if he says it’s not.”

Yukimura nodded and squeezed Taiyou’s hand before beginning to walk.

“Come on, it’s better if we get there early.”


End file.
